Red Bull has decided against boosting
Daniel Ricciardo's slim championship hopes by making departing
Sebastian Vettel the team 'number 2'. After a difficult weekend in Russia, Australian Ricciardo is now a distant 92 points behind championship leader
Lewis Hamilton -- with only 100 more on offer over the final three grands prix of 2014.
"Daniel would have to win all three," Red Bull chief
Christian Horner is quoted by Auto Motor und Sport, "and the
Mercedes drivers not finish. I think it's just between Lewis and Nico now," he was quoted as saying elsewhere.
When running behind the seemingly
Ferrari-bound Vettel on Sunday, Ricciardo pleaded over the radio early in the race that he could be driving quicker than his teammate. It was the obvious request for a team order. "Looking at the championship standings," Horner explained afterwards, "team orders at this point don't make much sense."
Red Bull's decision to part on the best possible terms with Vettel might be an order right from the top, with team owner
Dietrich Mateschitz having groomed the four-time world champion from boyhood.
Billionaire Mateschitz told Salzburger Nachrichten newspaper on Sunday: "Vettel is now excluded from all developments that we are doing for next year's car. But that doesn't mean that we are going to give him inferior material to Ricciardo. He will be treated identically in all of the remaining races," he insisted. (GMM)
Replies (1)
Login to replyBtwnDitches
Posts: 204
I think that Riccardo's case for team orders was further reduced over the weekend when, after dozens of laps of trying, he was unable to pass Alonso's "inferior" Ferrari. The RB cars are NOT podium material right now on the fast tracks and Riccaro's chances of closing ranks on the Mercs, with Williams and McLaren also in the way, are slimmer than slim.